Mountville Days CarnivalWe haven’t quite joined the circus but Homefields and Goodwill@Homefields will be pitching a tent and selling raffle tickets at the Mountville Days Carnival in May. Come find us, learn more information about the vocational program, gaze upon the actual Ping golf clubs and Harley-Davidson motorcycle, talk with a real per-son and buy a raffle ticket! We’re working hard, please work with us in this most pleasant way possible. Dates: Thursday, May 24, 6 –10 p.m., Friday, May 25, 6–11 p.m., and Saturday, May 26, 6–11 p.m., Mountville, PA.

Meet New Board Members Dennis and KayDennis P. Dougherty has joined Home-fields’ Board of Directors this year. Dennis, a Supervisor in the Public Utility Com mis sion

Audit Bureau, lives with his wife, Susan, and children Shawn and Nora in Willow Street, PA. Shawn tried his hand at farm-ing at Homefields last summer and Dennis and Susan are shareholders in the Goodwill@Homefields’ CSA program.

Dennis, who was born and raised in Lancaster City, is a graduate of Lancaster Catholic High, attended the College of Steubenville, Ohio, served four years in the Navy, and holds a B.S. degree in Ac coun-ting from York College. He is currently a director on the Board of the Association for

Retarded Citizens of Lancaster County, serving two terms as Vice President, is active on the Arc’s Executive Committee, Independent Monitoring Program Advisory Committee, and the Lancaster County Mental Retardation Advisory Committee. Dennis is also a Eucharist minister at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lancaster and a minister of Communion to the sick and shut-ins.

When not somewhere taking care of the citizens of Lancaster County, look for Denny fly fishing for trout and steelhead, hunting, gardening, or with his family sun-ning on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

We also welcome Kay A. Welty who has accepted a three-year term as Director on Home fields’ Board. Kay, a native of Lancaster, holds academic degrees in History, Counselor Education, and Occupational Therapy. She served as an English teacher in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa and was employed 11 years with Georgetown University as a counselor and fiscal/office manager of an institute that works with international stu-dents. Kay has spent most of her adult years celebrating diversity and honoring universal human qualities through close associations with heterogeneous communi-ties. Reflecting those international ideals, Kay cherishes is her husband, Nabil, a man from Morocco.

Seeking a reprieve from 18 years in Washington, D.C., Kay has returned to Lancaster County to nurture personal plea-sures such as digging in the dirt, reading, sunning, planning the next journey, and pondering a universal connectivity through music. Kay’s current focus is that of a hos-pice volunteer visiting patients in their homes and helping to facilitate bereave-ment support groups.

Not Taken for GrantedThe Lancaster County Foundation’s Governing Committee most generously accepted Homefields’ request for a grant of $6,193 to build an equipment shed during the year 2001. This grant will not only provide Homefields with a structure in which to house our equipment, it will open up the second greenhouse, currently used as a tractor shelter, to plants. This is the second grant that has been given to Homefields from The Lancaster County Foundation. The first grant of seed money given to us in 1995 allowed Homefields to purchase a greenhouse that is currently pregnant with 15,000 seedlings.

Homefields is a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization. Your support has provided the necessary energy and resources we need to move forward. Thank you to everyone for helping to create this new and fresh residential/vocational path in and for

your community.

HARLEY-DAVIDSON RAFFLE WINNER 2000Kelly Porcelli, New York, was the lucky winner of Homefields’ sixth Harley-Davidson Motorcycle raffle drawing. Kelly chose to accept cash instead of the motorcycle so we are unable to show you her picture. In lieu of Kelly, we give you a photo of Brian Bixler with his lucky draw and Tom Strauss announcing the name of the winner.

Homefields is a non-profit organization, 501(c)(3). Donations are tax-deductible. Letters to the Editor can be sent to: Homefields, 150 Letort Road, P.O. Box #41, Millersville, PA 17551, (717) 872-2012, or to info@homefields.org

Homefields Incorporated

150 Letort Road

P. O. Box #41

Millersville, PA 17551

www.homefields.org

I S S U E E L E V E N • A P R I L 2 0 0 1

New Shepherd at CSA Seasons change and so do people. Paul Martin, the farmer we introduced you to last year, has moved away from Lancaster County to settle into a soon-to-be-married new life. The people at Homefields cele-brate Paul and Evangeline.

Now let us introduce you to Peter Emerson, the new farm manager for Goodwill@Homefields second organic growing season.

Peter has reddish hair and blue sensi-tive-to-the-sun eyes so it comes as a tre-mendous surprise to learn that he spent six years living and shaping his future in 20° latitude Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Haiti is an aboriginal Indian name meaning mountainous land. That’s where Peter’s passion for farming germinated as he spent summers working with his father and friends producing crops of trees for the barren Haitian mountains, a profession known as agri-forestry.

After graduating from high school, Peter moved back to Lancaster just long enough to try Junior College and to definitely determine that farming and people, not architectural engineering, are his true pas-sions. In 1998, he accepted an apprentice-ship on a farm in Hawaii where 100 variet-ies of tropical fruits, hardwood trees and 30 varieties of vegetables were thriving. Peter’s responsibility, in addition to farm-ing, was to work one-on-one with troubled youths who were also employees of the farm.

It is difficult to imagine anyone leaving Hawaii but Peter came back to the mainland to intern for a summer at The Rodale Institute, a 333-acre certified organic experimental farm in Pennsylvania. Upon completing his internship, Peter leased 2 acres of land at Rodale and created an independent Community Supported Agriculture farming operation that supported 21 shareholders.

Paul Martin, who was exiting Goodwill@Homefields, found Peter Emerson farming at Rodale and told him about this CSA horticultural program for people with disabilities and other special needs. Peter was facing a new year and had been wondering where to go to fulfill both his passion for farming and need for personal growth. Destiny? Who knows? The whole of Peter’s life experiences coalesced into one obvious answer—Goodwill@Homefields.

It is through Community Services Group that Robert J. Gray came to Homefields. He was hired to assist Stefan, Victor and Brian in their daily lives. Bob is a man whose gregari-ous optimism and generous spirit could not be contained; his thoughtfulness and caring attitude spilled out over the edges of his job description and grew to encompass all who live at Homefields and all who visited. Homefields’ residential mission became Bob’s mission, his example our benchmark. He was always asking concerned questions: Would Stefan bowl if the alley had bumpers? Is Lisa always listening to music? Would planting sunflowers in the garden bring joy? Could Victor bake cookies? Could we plant straw-berries in the garden so there is a crop every year? He cared about details, the impercepti-ble fine print in an expression. If a family stopped by to inquire about the activities at Homefields, Bob would walk through the fields and take on the mantle of tour guide.

Bob Gray has now moved to the corporate offices of Community Services Group where he is working in the Secretarial Depart-ment as Office Support. Never the less, his good-will lives on at Homefields as we reminisce over our 21⁄2 years spent together, watch the straw-berry plants grow back for a new season of fruit-fulness, and welcome Bob’s niece, Lisa Gray. Lisa has been hired as support staff for Mary Beth, Ted and Lisa.

Homefields’ Board of Directors instituted a new committee this year, the Residents’ Ad vo-cacy Committee. One purpose of this committee is to identify a residential staff member whose accomplishments and contributions to the life at Homefields are held as exceptional by all. Our first vote and tribute goes to Mr. Robert J. Gray.

BOARD MEMBERS

Thomas E. Strauss, PresidentStewart M. Ireland, Vice PresidentLinda Strauss, SecretaryChristian R. Herr, Jr., TreasurerLeon BixlerMartha BixlerJerry DetermanDennis P. DoughertyAllison G. HawthorneStefan LatshawMrs. Dorothy L. LyetJoyce Scout SmedleyKay A. Welty

Peter Emerson tends to seedlings in the greenhouse.

Robert J. Gray in his Community Services Group office.

A Fond TributeHE’S OFF TO CSG BUT STILL CHERISHED AT HOMEFIELDS

Homefields Mission StatementsResidential Our mission is to create a fi nan cially secure, long-term home in a safe, family-like setting where there is respect for the indi vidual in a holistic sense and fun and creativity are revered as basic human needs.

Vocational Our mission is to provide agri cultural/ horticultural facilities for individuals who prosper with supported employment; to nurture integration through com munity interaction and to cultivate a spirit of volunteerism within our community.

Teed Off?Okay maybe not quite yet. But mark September 12 on your calendar. That’s when Homefields Fifth Annual Fall Classic Golf Tournament will com mence at Overlook in Lancaster. Planning is already well underway, and you can read more about the tournament elsewhere in this news-

letter. Or log on to our website, where you can register online, get more up-to-the-minute infor-

mation, or read more about our golf or Harley raffle.

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❏ Check ❏ MasterCard ❏ Visa ❏ Discover/Novus ❏ American Express

Card # _________________________________________________________________ Exp. Date _____/______

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Please make checks payable to Homefields, Inc. and mail this coupon in the envelope provided. Credit cards will be processed free of charge by Miller’s Smorgasbord. Your donations are tax-deductible.

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Tom Strauss and Jim Determan add a covered exterior to the barn that will shelter vocational program workers as they prepare vegetables for pick-up days.

You may wonder where Goodwill trainees are employed after the harvest season ends. One of the companies offering job placement is Child Craft International, a

business that manufactures and assembles government-

a p p r o v e d furniture and s u p p l i e s for schools, c h u r c h e s and day care centers. Goodwill I n d u s t r i e s and Child Craft Inter national have

enjoyed a 11⁄2 year association. This year, 20 Goodwill trainees are working on various projects such as placing a Jamie Lee Curtis book

together with a puppet, assembling, shrink-wrapping, and packing. As winter ends and manufacturing demands lessen, German, Nathan, Leon, and Sandy (top to bottom) will introduce days of employment at Goodwill@Homefields into their schedule.

A Recipe from the FieldsBok Choy Soup The Good-for-You Garlic Cookbook

1 teaspoon butter1⁄2 cup minced leek or onion4 garlic cloves, minced4 baby bok choy, thinly sliced8 cups chicken broth or vegetable

stock2 large potatoes, peeled & diced2 teaspoons dried chervil

(optional)2 teaspoons dried marjoram1 carrot, peeled and grated3 ounces dry vermicellisalt & pepper

Place butter and 1⁄4 cup water in soup pot; add leeks and garlic and cook slowly until it begins to brown. Add bok choy, chicken broth and 2 cups water; bring to boil. Add potatoes, optional cher-vil, marjoram, and carrot. Simmer 25 minutes. Add vermicelli; cook 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Eight servings.

Bok choy is a garden vegetable high in calcium and an excellent source of vitamins A, B-complex, C and some minerals. Counting calories? 24 per one cup serving.

CONTRIBUTORS During the 2000 United Way of Lancaster County Campaign, $7505 was designated to Homefields. Also contributing were:

Christina R. CoatesScott SnyderJennifer D. Bennett in the name of

Pinky Tabor Dr. J. Freeland Chryst, CEO, The Jay

GroupJames A. and Cora Lynn GingrichBetty Jane Ames GroffMs. Lucinda E. HamptonKaren L. HerrNancy T. HoeltzelMr. and Mrs. Robert S. HuffMr. and Mrs. James F. LinnThomas and Carol MayerMr. and Mrs. John D. ReidenbaughDarla K. SchorrJoseph and Patricia Slakey, In memo-

ry of Mary Beth CservenyanskyWilliam & Joyce SmedleyDavid Stover. PROTECHMr. and Mrs. Richard S. and Mary

Grace TaborC.J. Charles Lumber, Inc. In-kind

For those who believe that #7 is their lucky number, Homefields presents this opportunity to you in this, our 7th raffle. Win a blue 2001 Harley-Davidson Sportster XL 883 for just $5.00 a ticket. The Harley Valentine’s drawing will be held Saturday, February 9, 2002 at Homefields.

You can buy a ticket and see the actual bike in the lobby of Miller’s Smorgasbord, Route 30 East, Ronks, PA.

Maybe PING goes the strings of your heart? If so, win Homefields’ Golfer’s Dream raffle with a $5.00 ticket purchase: PING i3 0 Size Irons, PING TiSI Titanium Driver with graphite shaft, PING i3 #3 and #5 fairway woods with JZ steel shaft. (The winner receives a complimentary custom fitting at Overlook Golf Course), PING L8

These graphs illustrate income and expenditures for fiscal year 1999–2000. As you can see, the Harley-Davidson raffle and golf tour-nament combined to give us more than a third of our income.

+ stand bag, and TWO rounds of golf for 2. One each at: Lancaster Country Club and Bent Creek Country Club (as a guest of a member). Drawing to be held September 12, 2001 at Home-fields’ Annual Golf Tournament, Overlook Golf Course, Lancaster.

The PING clubs and bag are on display in the lobby of Miller’s Smorgasbord, Route 30 East, Ronks, PA.

You need not be present to win either raffle and all proceeds ben-efit Homefields, a 501(c)(3) orga-nization in Millersville, PA that supports adults with develop-mental disabilities and other spe-cial needs.

You can get tickets for either raffle by sending a check with a return envelope to us or by com-pleting a form on our secure web-site: www.homefields.org

WinningOpportunities

The Off Season

Building a bridge between the farming duties at Homefields and the trainee-farmers from Goodwill Industries is Scott Brenneman, Goodwill@ Homefields Trainee Supervisor. Scott will be responsible for transporting trainees from Goodwill in Lancaster to Home fields in Millers ville, setting up equipment and tools for each day, recognizing safety issues such as sun and heat, and working with the trainees to steadily improve to the best of their abilities.

Scott was born and grew up on a 50-acre dairy farm in Hess dale, PA on land granted by William Penn and under the shade of a multitude of nut trees planted by his great-grandfather, who worked for a nut nursery. Scott’s love for those trees and plants was a special connection he shared with his father.

The first summer after graduating from Eastern Mennonite College, Scott volunteered at an international community in Georgia know as Jubilee Partners. There he grew nuts and figs for the no-profit/no-cost commune while teaching English to Vietnamese refugees. Where to go after a summer in Georgia? Wakkanai, Japan, of course. It was a place for Scott and his wife, Lorena, to spend a second honeymoon while Scott taught English to Japanese students at a Junior College.

Returning home with a certainty that plants and trees would always be an integral part of their lives, Scott and Lorena took off on a five-week trek across America expressly to observe vegetation in all eleven plant hardiness zones. They observed cranberries pro-cessed by Ocean Spray to Louisiana rice being harvested, volumes of touch and taste learning brought back to be applied in Lancaster County and at Goodwill@Homefields.

Teaching, training, farming, always learning; as is true for Peter, the soil at Homefields seems to be the perfect spot for Scott to plant his next steps.

This year the Goodwill@Homefields vocational program started April 16, with ten trainee-farmers working Monday through Friday, and it will end the last week of October. Onions, spinach, turnips, strawberries, and peas are already growing in the fields and soon thirty additional organically grown selections will be planted—every imaginable vegetable from artichokes to winter squash and then some. But, please, as if this isn’t enough, you will also be able to buy bedding plants, pick flowers from the fields, harvest herbs, and order organic bread, meat, eggs, and cheese. Your purchase of a share of produce makes it possible for adults with a disadvantaging condition to be empowered through work at a job that offers good health and happiness as well as a paycheck. A share will also bring you health through fresh foods and happi-ness as you meet the trainees.

To learn more and to become a partner in the Goodwill@ Homefields Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organic farming and vocational training program, call or write: Goodwill@ Homefields, c/o Peter Emerson, Farm Manager, 150 Letort Road, Millersville, PA 17551. (717) 871-3110

Full share ($24.00 a week) — $650.00 Single share ($9.00 a week) — $250.00

Super Supervisor

CSA Underway

Scott and Patty, a trainee, tend to the fields (above). The first crops sprout in the greenhouse (right).